For a game with so many rules, American mahjong scoring is refreshingly simple. There's no adding up points hand by hand. Somebody wins, everyone else pays her, and the only question is how much.
Here's how it works, with a few examples so you can do the math at the table without reaching for your phone.
Look at the right side of the NMJL card and you'll see a number next to every hand. That's its value. Harder hands are worth more, and concealed hands usually pay more than their exposed cousins.
Most groups play for small change, like quarters, or for chips or points instead of money. The rules below work the same either way.
If you win by calling another player's discard, the player who threw that tile pays you double the hand's value. The other two players pay you the value once.
Example: You win a 25-cent hand off Carol's discard. Carol pays you 50 cents, and the other two players each pay 25 cents. You collect $1.00.
If you draw your winning tile from the wall yourself (a self-pick), all three players pay you double.
Example: You self-pick the last tile of a 25-cent hand. Each player pays 50 cents, and you collect $1.50.
If you win without using any jokers, the hand's value doubles. The normal payment rules then apply on top of that.
Example: You win a 25-cent hand jokerless off a discard. The hand is now worth 50 cents, so the discarder pays $1.00 and the other two pay 50 cents each. You collect $2.00.
One exception: singles-and-pairs hands can't use jokers in the first place, so they don't get the jokerless bonus.
If the wall runs out before anyone declares mahjong, it's a wall game. Nobody pays, the tiles get shuffled, and the deal moves on.
And if your hand goes dead during the game (say, from a mistaken exposure), you stop playing, but you still pay the winner when the hand ends.
Because the discarder pays double, you have a real reason to be careful about what you throw late in the game. That's the heart of good defense, which we cover in Mahjong Defense: How to Stop Handing Your Opponents the Win.
New to the card? Read What Is the NMJL Card? first, and if you want to practice building higher-value hands, Bird Bam can help you get there faster.